NEWS & TRENDS
Inflation and prices in veterinary medicine
Inflation is a hot topic in the news, with the consumer price index increasing faster than it has in decades. But how is it affecting veterinary medicine?
In the second column in his Fountain Report series on how the economy is affecting the veterinary industry, Dr. James Lloyd addresses several areas of concern for practice leaders regarding inflation.
Using the consumer price index as the benchmark, veterinary service costs don’t seem to be rising faster than household income, though the picture may be changing for lower-income households, Jim notes.
Price seems to rank low for pet owners when considering which veterinarian to choose, meaning that generally, demand for veterinary services isn’t likely to change much with inflation. Again, lower-income pet owners may be more sensitive to price hikes than others.
Based on the data, therefore, inflation likely won’t change the current veterinary industry workforce shortages, Jim says: “Innovative, progressive initiatives to address the shortages and provide enhanced access to care should certainly not be shelved.”
> Read the full column here.
You can read Jim's first column in the series here.
Planning your practice’s operational strategy for 2023
If practice leaders haven’t gotten started on strategic planning for 2023, now is the time to do so.
In her latest column in the Fountain Report, veterinarian and industry consultant Karen Felsted gives advice for practice managers to plan for next year effectively.
First, practice leaders should take a quantitative look at their operation: revenue and profitability (and how they’re changing over time), costs, client numbers and productivity. Leaders should also evaluate their practice qualitatively, accounting for online reviews, program results, and how their practice compares to others nearby.
Next, leaders should identify their quantitative and qualitative goals for 2023 and develop a specific action plan to achieve them.
“Strategic planning is always important but even more so in the last couple of years and looking into the future due to the large changes we have seen in veterinary medicine, the economy and the world at large,” Karen says.
> Read the full column here.
To help the veterinary profession, invest in your team
As the veterinary profession struggles to meet rising demand for care amid a workforce shortage, leaders need to invest in their teams, writes Dr. Bob Lester, chief medical officer at WellHaven Pet Health.
In Today’s Veterinary Business, Lester and Kara Burns, WellHaven’s director of veterinary nurse development, offer advice for managers to effectively engage and empower their team members. This includes offering the opportunity to obtain nutrition certification, paid continuing education time and tuition reimbursement.
> Read the full article here.
Rural veterinary shortages create risks for food system, report says
The United States faces an alarming shortage of veterinarians to treat livestock and poultry in rural areas, threatening public health, food safety and economic growth in communities that depend on agriculture, a new report says.
Today, only 3-4% of new veterinary school graduates pursue livestock or other food animal practice areas, down from about 40% four decades ago, according to the report commissioned by Farm Journal Foundation and authored by Cornell University economics expert Clinton Neill.
Shortages stem from several factors, including high levels of education debt that have outpaced potential earnings, especially in the rural United States. The report includes potential solutions the federal government could implement to mitigate the problem.
> Read the full article here.
The Vet Watch Report
Year-to-date revenue for the week ending December 3 was up 4.7% over the same period last year at veterinary practices across the country, according to the latest Vet Watch™ Weekly Insight Report from Animalytix. Month-to-date revenue was down 5.8%.
For the month ending November 30, core and lifestyle canine and feline vaccine practice purchases were up 0.7%. Purchases of surgical suite consumables were down 0.1%, chronic care product purchases were down 3.5%, kennel cough vaccine purchases were down 1.2%, and parasiticide purchases were up 2.4%.
> Read the full update here.
|
